The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has just announced two lawsuits against farm corporations operating in Oregon, the first against agricultural employers in the state.

In it, the agency alleges that two women working on an Eastern Oregon onion farm "faced a barrage of explicit and degrading sexual comments and physical assault by a truck driver" for the farm. They complained to their supervisor and were fired the next day.

One of the women told investigators: "I didn't ask to be harassed. I was just there to do my job. Instead, I had to listen to my co-worker say disgusting things to me and … , and threaten to drag me to his truck and have sex with me against my will. After we asked our supervisor to make him stop, we were told by management that they didn't want any more problems and we were no longer needed."

The other case involves a dairy and egg producer in Oregon and Washington. According to the EEOC, "a male supervisor repeatedly grabbed, sought to forcibly undress, and propositioned" a woman employee.

The complaint alleges that instead of helping her, the company pressured her to resign. "She ultimately was forced to quit out of fear for her safety."

It is troubling to hear such allegations after all the attention the illegality of sexual harassment on the job has received. The men who acted this way, where have they been? In a cave someplace, cut off from the rest of humanity for the last 20 years? And even if they were genuinely uninformed, where were their manners?

Even if manners have never been taught or have gone down the drain, everybody now working in the United States has been told more than once what the law is on this point.

Such conduct is illegal, and if it is reported, it must be promptly investigated and stopped. (hh)